
3^^^^^f^^^.H»4^=^^^^^^-^^^^4^^^ 



^ 



f hauhsioivinfl mil %km. 




-A. SEsrLivLorsr 



PREACHED ox 



Tliaiikstiivmir I3;x^', Deceixiber 7, 1865. 



IN THE 



IPPER OtTOUAK V PUE^IJYTEIUAA CHIMH, TA., f 



B^S- THE P.A.STOPI, 



REV. J. J. POMERaT, 4, 



Forimrhi (Jliajilaui nford Rcg'l P. R. V.,and Vd^lh Rcg'l P. V. ,£ 







C0ATE8VILLE, PA. 

\\\l. .1. KALFKMAV .V BnO., PRINTERS. 
1866. 




©toihsgiumg and Wm». 



.A. SE3rL3M:oisr 



PREACHED ON 



Thanksgivini^ Day, December 7, 1865. 



IX THE 



UPPER OCTORARA PRESBYTERIAN CHIRCH, PA., 



B'Y THE T'.A.STOPl, 



Formerly Chaplain of Zrd Regt P. R. V., mid 198th Reg't P. V. 






COATESVILLE, PA. 

WM. J. KAGFFMAN & ERO., PIlIMTKr.3. 

1S66. 



Correspond-ence- 



Parkesburg, Dec. 11, 1865. 

To the Rev. John J. Pomerot, 

Dear Sir: — The Board of Trustees of Upper Octorara 
Church, have instructed us to earnestly request you to give us, for 
publication, a copy of the able and patriotic Sermon delivered in our 
Church, on the 1th of December, 1865, appointed by the President 
of the United States as a day of National Thanksgiving. By com- 
plying ivith the above request you will enable us to give all our pew 
holders a copy. 

Yours, Sfc, 

ROBERT PARKE, 
President of Board of Trustees.. 
Sam'l. D. McClellan, Sec\j. 



To THE Trustees of Upper Octorara Church, 

Gentlemen : — In compliance ivith your request, 1 
place my Thanksgiving Sermon at your disposal. 

Yours truly, 

J. J. POMEROY. 
December 14, 1865. 



Thanksgiving and Vows. 



'^Offer unto God tkanksgiving, aiid pay thy voivs unto the Most High." 
— Ps. 50, 14. 

The principal elements which constitute true worship, are adora- 
tion, confession, supplication and thanksgiving. God's dealings with 
us as individuals, as communities, as a nation, and the dittereat 
states of our minds will cause us to give preponderance to that ele- 
ment of worship, which is most in harmony with the outward cir- 
cumstances that aSect us, and the complexion of the inner life which 
prompts us. 

When contemplating the glorious character of God : His intinite 
wisdom. His mighty power. His unimpeachable truth, His unchauga- 
ble justice. His spotless purity. His wonderful grace and unbounded 
love, it is then that the heart swells with adoration, and faithful 
lips will exclaim — Thou art "the King eternal, immortal, invisible, 
the only wise God." — 1 Tim. i, 17. 

Who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord ? Who among 
the sons of the mighty can be hkenedunto the Lord ?" — Ps. Ixxxix, 
6. "Thou art great and dost wondrous things ; thou art God alone.'" 
Ps. Ixxxvi, 10. 

Making ourselves subjects of thought, analyzing our characters, 
our states of heart, our thoughts, our words, our deeds, and then re- 
membering that the result of this self-examination is already before 
the omniscient God, we bow very low in His presence, with grief and 
sorrow, and in the spirit of humble confession we would address 
Him, "0 Lord to us belong confusion of face, because we have sin- 
ned against Thee." — Dan. ix, 8. We are "a seed of evil doers." — 
Ps. i, 4. "We are all gone aside, we are altogether become filthy, 
there is none that doeth good, no, not one."— Ps. xiv, 3. 

This sense of sin, which reveals itself in still greater enormity the 
further the process of self examination is carried on, and at the same 
time the knowledge that there is pardon through the merits and in- 
tercession of the Lord Jesus, will cause us to tiee to Him as our only 
hope, crying with the importunate voice of supplication, "0 Lord, I 
am oppressed, undertake for me."— Is. xxxviii, 14. 

Again there are times when God's mercies, his temporal and spir- 
itual blessings, appear to rise so high above the ordinary plas-of his 'JU^c^'- 
profuseness, that the most indolent and unobserving Christians are 
aroused to a sense of His goodness : and they attract the attention 



of men of the world who will not be reminded of the existence of 
God except when something extraordinary crosses their path. 

I. Do we not to-day stand on this high plain, this table-land of 
God's beneficence and mercy ? There must be something peculiarly 
blessed in our condition since we have the injunction from our State 
Executive, and from the President of our nation that we render thanks- 
giving this day to the God of our fathers and our God. These 
requests find a ready response from a thankful and Christian people 
who now throng the temples of the living God, and with a unison 
and harmony that rises with a grand diapason of national praise, 
sing. "Bless the Lord my soul : and all that is within me bless 
His holy name. Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all His 
benefits." — Ps. ciii, I, 2. 

As individuals, as a community, as a state we have received much 
from the hand of the Lord for which we should be thankful. Our 
first duty to-day, however, is, to stand up in our National Capacity 
and thank the Lord of Nations that he did not permit us to be torn 
into fragments, and scattered as poor despised wayfarers upon the 
face of the earth, without homes, without a country, without a 
government, without a name. We thank the Lord to-day, that we 
rise into the proud consciousness of the fact that we are an integral 
people, a nation, and have a government, purified and strengthened 
we fondly hope and pray, because of the fiery ordeal through which 
we have passed. 

Retaining our attitude of thanskgiving to God it is not inappropriate 
at such a time as this to recount something of our past history. 
Standing as we do upon the threshold of a new epoch commencing a 
new volume in the history of our national life we can look down 
through the vista of the past, and thank God for the honorable and 
historic prominence he has given us among the nations of the earth. 
Over three hundred years ago when European Despots trampled into 
the dust, with imperious feet, civil and religious liberty, God who 
reveals the riches and extent of the earth at Ilis will, opened up this 
then unknown land as an asylum to our fathers. The.y came not 
hither as mere excursionists, or explorers ; nor were they impelled to 
seek these western wilds by the wonderful stories of fabulous wealth 
that was said to be strewed in rich gems among the sands of the 
sea beach, in the river courses and in precious metals, hid among 
the rocks and imbedded in the earth. They sought a pearl more 
precious than all these. While they fled the exactions of a State 
Church establishment that forbad them worship God in the simplic- 
ity of scriptural forms, they sought refuge here that they might en- 
joy the precious love of civil and religious liberty. The same ty- 
ranizing power that drove them from the mother country with its 
bitter and continuous oppressions followed them and as a conse- 
quence goaded them into the revolutionary struggle. By the helping 
hand of God our fathers came out of that contest not a subdued and 



crushed dependency, but a victorious and independent State. 

The experiment was now to be made, if a free government, one 
originating with and controlled by the people could exist ; whether 
it could perpetuate itself by proving a blessing to its subjects 
and by its own inherent worth and strength gain respectability 
among the nations of the earth. What has been the issue of this 
experiment ? For over four score years it has been on trial. We 
to-day show to the observing world that a government coming from 
the hearts and minds of a free and intelligent people is possible and 
more stable than the monarchies of the earth, where princes rule by 
power inherited, and not by the voluntary suffrages of the people. 
We have proven that a pure church can stand upon the foundation 
which God hath laid, without leaning on the arm of a corrupting state, 
and looking upon an earthly prince as its head. Ilere it has been 
shown that independence and freedom in the church, which ac- 
knowledges Christ alone as its head, is not incompatable with inde- 
pendence and freedom m the State, Here it has also been proven 
that an individual from the humblest walks in life may not only as- 
pire to, but really attain the highest position in the gift of the peo- 
ple, a position more honorable than that occupied by the most pow- 
erful king upon the earth. During the period of our national pro- 
bation we have had our clouds, our pelting storms, and several hur- 
ricanes of war, that have tried most severely every timber of our 
national fabric. In the more distant past we were compelled to draw 
the sword in vindication of national honor. In our day, however, we 
have witnessed and taken part in a contest that had a more impor- 
tant prize at stake : it was nothing less than a struggle for the pres- 
ervation of national life. 

On previous occasions war was waged upon us by foreign powers ; 
but in our day, men of our own household, driven by the madness 
of the most wretched folly, and given over to judicial blindness, lift- 
ed fratracidal hands, and struck at the very heart of the nation ; at- 
tempted national suicide ; that which would have bereaved even the 
perpetrators of the deed and would have ruined us all. The clarion 
notes of alarm were sounded throughout the land and the question 
was put to the people as to whether or not the sacred inheritance be- 
queathed unlo us by our fathers, our national government, purchased 
at such an immense cost of blood and treasure, should be thus rashly 
and wickedly destroyed. The answer was given in that majestic 
uprising of a free people, animated by one resolve, that our national 
fabric with all its associated blessings should not perish without at 
least the attempt to ward off the sacrilegious blows. Implements of 
peace were dropped, and untutored hands took hold of the instru- 
ments of war, and the very earth trembled beneath the tread of mighty 
hosts preparing for the conflict we were forced to accept. 

We had been taught that the "race is not to the swift, nor the 
battle to the strong": and "that the battle is the Lord's," that He 



it is who elevates with victory, or crushes with defeat. God's 
blessing was asked in this terrible undertaking. With weeping eyes 
and aching liearts, and in great agony of spirit, we besought Him to 
undertake for us. Now my hearers, in the light of God's providence 
let us ask ourselves ; what hath the Lord wrought for us ? What 
has been the will of the Lord to us, struggling in mortal conflict with 
that powerful intestine faction seeking our national ruin ? 

1. Ah, it is our blessed privilege and high duty this day to thank 
the Lord for victon/ over our domestic foes, not partial, hut complete, 
absolute victory. In the language of Deborah the prophetess and 
heroine of Israel who sang praises to the Lord when her nation was 
delivered from the hosts of Sisera we can say, "Praise ye the Lord 
for the avengino: of (our nation), when the people willingly offered 
themselves." Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thee, Lord, 
belongeth the praise. We cannot come into the presence of the God of 
battles with boastful spirit, for wherewith have we to boast if we have 
simply performed part of our duty, and if events belong to the Lord ? 
Nor do we come into the presence of the Lord to rejoice in and thank 
Him for mere success. Mere triumph in a trial of strength would 
be no compensation for the great price that was paid to secure it. 
To-day, as we render thanksgiving to the Lord for victory we thank 
Him for the fruits of victory. 

(1) We thank the Lord as a fruit of our success that he has continued 
unto us the ordinance of a Civil Government. 

God is as truly the Author of Civil Governments as lie is of the 
church. The only difference is that He stands in a more intimate 
relation to the latter than He does to the former. "The most High 
ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will." 
Dan, iv, 32. By "Me(saith the Lord)Kings reign and princes decree 
justice. By Me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the 
earth." Prov. viii, 15, 16. Let us in our restored government keep 
before our minds the fact that it is the Lord that continues and puts 
a period to a nation's existence just as truly as He continues and 
brings to an end the life of an individual. Have you my hearers ac- 
customed yourselves to think of what would have been our condi- 
tion had God removed from us this beneficent gift ? Without a 
National Government ! We would have had no place among the 
nations of the earth. Our National emblem would have disappeared 
from the land and the sea ; it would have been stored away among 
mouldy antiquities as a thing that once signified something. AVe 
could have had no respect abroad, and no controlling power at home 
to keep seperatc states from devouring one another, no protection to 
Communities to families, either in person or estate ; every safe guard 
to social, civil, and religious privileges would have been swallowed 
up in one universal chaos. 

O let us thank the Lord to-day that he has not permitted the 
sceptre to pass from our hands, that He has not given us over to 



anarchy, and made us a by-word and a hissing among the nations of 

(2) As a second fruit of victory we thank the Lord that Slavery 
the creat exciting cause of our national aUenation and strife has been, 
or is about to be most certainly removed. The Philadelphia Synod, 
to which we belong, in a series of resolutions adopted unanimously 
at its last meeting thus refers to the subject. 

Resolved -'-That special thanksgivings arc due to God for the re-estabUah- 
men of the National authority overall our territory for the restoration of 
peace, and for the removal of Slavcry-that great National evil and one 
of the Clue f causes of the late I'jar.''' , „, , ,. 

Many years have been spent in both Church and State m discussing 
this subject. It has always been an element occasioning discord. 
It imbittcred individuals, it caused angry words between travellers, 
often terminating in bloody and fatal encounters ; it caused schism in 
Churches, and was made the entering wedge to divide our country, 
and was profanely declared to be the Chief Corner stone of a govern- 
ment proposed to be founded upon the ruins of our nation. God m 
his providence has spoken to us in regard to this matter, in a moment 
He cut the gordian knot and has taken away the intracies over which 
we had been so long puzzled. That phase of the subject over which 
there has been a continual conflict, has in the good providence of God 
been removed. We are henceforth to have no more personal quarrels 
over it. It is no longer to occupy the precious time of Presbyteries, 
Synods and General Assemblies ; calling forth sharp disputes, hard- 
sayings, occasioning bitter heart-burnings alienations the breaking 
of tender ties, and thus causing Christ to be wounded in the house 

of his f ricticis 

It is no longer to occasion angry debates in our National Congress, 
daily disturbing our national harmony, and constantly threatening our 
national ruin. Our worthy President in his late message to Con- 
irress referrin"- to the complete eradication of human slavery as a 
|?stem from "the whole hind, speaks thus, "This is^the measure 
which will efface the sad memories of the past. : '^ ^ \l 
heals the wound that is still imperfectly closed. ■ • it 

makes of us, once more a united people, renewed and strengthened, 
bound more than ever to mutual affection and support. 

For the removal of this thing which has caused so many bitter 
words, so much alienation, so much strife, so much blood fom^'^Y 
rrecious lives, we, Lord, from our heart of hearts thank ihee. 

(3.) As a 3rd fruit of victory we thank the Lord for an honorable 

^'a peace without righteousness, without justice, without the vin- 
dicltfon of a just cause would have been no peace. It would simply 
have been the suspension of hostilities to prepare for f"tu^^f;f^ ' 
mutual recrimination would again have et loose the dogs of war and 
blood would have liown more profusely than before A\ e alHonged 
desired, and prayed for peace ; but we desired not that temporary 



10 

short-lived peace which preceeds another volcanic eruption, bringing 
death to thousands who are deceived by a proffered security when 
there is none. God in His own good time has given us an abiding 
peace, as we believe, as the product of our signal triumph. 

Thank the Lord that after a four year's war, with all its attendant 
woes, we are now greeted with this glad day of relief and peace. 
No startling war news now distract the mind as we come up to the 
sanctuary of the Lord. There is no more bidding farewell with loved 
ones who leave the associations and comforts of home, for the dis- 
comforts of the camp, and the perils of battle. The pouring rain, 
and the cold winter blasts cease to wring the hearts of almost every 
home in the land. The feverish excitement which ruled by day, and 
that restlessness of spirit which denied repose during the night, have 
been driven away by the advent of peace and conscious security. 
Thank the Lord this night of agony has been chased away by the 
ushering in of a bright, beautiful, peaceful day, full of hope. 

Blessed truth which seems like a pleasing dream rather than a 
reality, the bugle blast of attention, and forward to battle is no more 
heard in the land. We look no more upon gallant and manly forms, 
that one moment are rushing forward upon opposing works and secret- 
ed foes, and the next lie maimed and lifeless upon the earth. "VVehear 
no more the cry of wounded men pleading for help. There is no 
more urging stretcher-bearers forward to carry these bleeding ones 
to where they may receive the meagre attentions of the field»hospi- 
tal ; and this charnal house where strong men writhe and groan, 
making one perpetual wail of agony, is at length, thank the Lord, 
closed. 

There is now no loading up of ambulances with mangled men who 
plead to be handled with care. No more hasty burial of the dead, 
wrapping the slain patriots in great coats or blankets, and thus 
lower them into their shallow graves, and then ask God to give those 
who know not that they are bereaved grace and strength to bear the 
heavy blow, and supplicate the Lord that those who still live, may live 
for truth and Him, and that the conflict that still rages may eventuate 
to His glory, and our success — then stained with the blood of those 
we knew and loved seek remaining comrades in the new point gained, 
to perform the same sad duties when the terrible work shall com- 
mence again at to-morrow's dawn. \Ve thank the Lord that these 
tragic scenes have closed. God grant that tiny may never be re-ea- 
acted. 

In this our day of peace we should also be tliankful to the Lord 
that all through our terrible struggle, we were and are still at peace 
with foreign nations. The subtle policy of France, the many posi- 
tive acts of encouragement given by England to treason and rebel- 
lion, thus prolonging our intestine strife and multiplying our nation- 
al bereavements, have and do still, try our patience and magnanim- 
ity. In the proud pre-eminence we now occupy let our attitude as 



a nation toward these and all other powers of the earth always be 
that of seeking peace rather than inviting war — let us be "swift to 
hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." 

2. We would be remiss, my hearers, if we did not thank the Lord 
for the icmporal hlcssings he has granted us during the past year, 
and throughout the whole period of our straggle. 

If, in addition to the loss of the sturdy sons of agriculture, the 
Lord had withheld the early and latter rain, we could not have borne 
the double burden of famine and war. God, through the laws of 
nature, wrought for us, and not only gave us our daily bread and 
enough to provision vast armies of men, but a surplus by which we 
were able to supply the demands of other nations. 

Our various industries lirst sutfered from the sudden and unex- 
pected shook of war and the diversion of our energies into the great 
war channel. The energy and tact of our people soon brought restora- 
tion. Here and there a mill stood still and hammers were silent, 
yet throughout the whole loyal portion of our land there has been the 
perpetual hum of busy and varied labor. 

Young men left our schools and colleges to take part in the strug- 
gle for a higher civilization, yet these fountains of knowledge were 
still kept open, and carried on the great work of training the youth 
of our land for a true and noble manhood. 

Time fails us to enumerate the many rich temporal blessings we 
have received from the Author of all good. Suffice it to say, my 
hearers, that you have special reason to be thankful that your rich 
and beautiful Chester Valley has not been in the track of marching 
and contending armies, that the terrible besom of war has not swept 
away your crops, your cattle, )'our homes, and made this garden 
spot a desert waste. Look upon the desolations that war has made, 
and thank God, and be liberal to those who are in need. 

3. Above all we should be thankful to the Lord for His Spiritu- 
al mercies. During the continuance of the war the doors of our 
churches have been open. Christ the Saviour of sinners has been 
faithfully preached. The Bible, the glory of Protestanisra, and the 
great Magna Charta of our civil and religious liberties has not been 
thrown into a corner, but kept open and before the people, carried 
on the persons, and its rich truths stored up in the hearts of thous- 
ands of our brave soldiers. Our Sabbath Schools continued to gath- 
er m the young and teach them the great truths of God's word. 
Our Tract and Missionary Societies have gone forward in faith, 
trusting in the promise of God, appealing to the liberality of our 
Christian people, and they have been sustained. AV'hile men were 
offering themselves freely for their country's cause there were not 
wanting those who for the love of their Divine Master, and his glori- 
ous cause offered themselves to go to the distant heathen, and carry 
aloft the gospel banner in the great war against idolatory. 

God the Father did not cease to he gracious. God the Son did not 



12 

withdraw the offer of salvation because the men warred. God the 
Holy Spirit did not cease to urge men to accept of Salvation so freely 
offered. No. the Lord has not deserted us. He is present with His 
people now, and nowhere has He been more powerfully and gra- 
ciously present than within the bounds of our New Castle Presby- 
tery. Here He has manifested Himself in reviving, awakening, and 
converting power ; daily makmg new conquests, recording in the 
book of life splendid victories, souls released from prison and from 
the bondage of Satan. On the Pisgah hight of temporal and spiritu- 
al blessings, let us this day, with grateful hearts, "otier unto God 
thanksgiving." 

II, The second injunction of the text : Pay thii voirx unto the most 
high.'' 

It is perfectly natural for us to makevows or promises to the Lord 
when under the influence of imminent danger. This is also true 
when sensibly impressed with Divine goodness in freeing us from 
threatened evil and securing unto us positive blessings. Now my 
hearers it is scarcely possible for us to have passed through the fiery 
scrutiny of the last four years without having made certain resolves 
to God, promises to be more faithful to the principles of justice, truth 
jmre morality, law and order. We have witnessed what discord, 
what strife, what woe has been brought upon our whole land by the 
violation of these sacred virtues, and therefore we have vowed that 
we would be more faithful Cliristian Citizens. 

1. Some men who have always been devotedly attached to the 
cause of Christ, have from natural distaste for the busy, rough, and 
too often wicked activity of the world, neglected to perform their 
duties as Civilians. Others who have not read the scriptures aright 
think they are free from all obligations to their respective commu- 
nities, in a civil capacity. But the great majority of Christians go 
down into the contests of the world, not with the determination of 
enforcing, if possible, a higher morality into the administration of 
public all'airs, but to readily yield lo the men of the world, and as a 
consequence to the Godless spirit of the world. 

The Christian citizen should always keep in remembrance, that 
much of the word of God treats of civil affairs, that many of its 
promises are concerning nations, and national developements, and 
that many of its prophecies tell of the rise, progress, decay and fall 
of governments. We should remember that "many of the Psalms 
are the songs of a rejoicing kingdom and that the Proverbs had a king 
for their author and are full of the wisest political maxims." We 
should remember that the apostles would make theology practical in 
the epistles of the New Testament by enforcing its requirements 
upon men in the performance of their domestic, social, and civil 
duties. We should remember as the custodiai\iof the Word of God 
that the Decalogue is the foundation of all law, and that we are 
recreant to an important duty we owe to God and man, if we permit 



13 

laws relating to morality to be legulated by any lower standard. 
We also profess as Christians to have faith in unadulterated truth, 
uncontaminatcd Justicejustice without being robbed of her scales, ad- 
ministered in vindication of the majesty of law, as a penalty to evil 
doers, and a protection to those who do well. AVe believe in temper- 
ance, and temperance laws,not dead statutes, but living operating enact- 
ments. We believe in the morality of the Scriptures, that it should 
be the morality of both public and private life. We believe in the com- 
mandment requiring strict observance of God's Holy Day. We 
believe in the duty of an enlightened people such as we profess to be 
to elevate in the moral scale, by education and industry, all persons 
within our borders, let them be of whatever race or class they may. 
This we believe, this is in part our profession of faith. Alas ! alas ! 
how recreant we have been in the past to these principles. Let us 
henceforth show our faith by our works, remembering that faith 
without works is dead. Never was there more urgent demand for 
these truths to be brought out into the open field than now. Knight 
never buckled on armor in nobler and holier cause than that now 
calling loudly for Christian activity. This is a day in which every 
Christian citizen should rejoice in the mottoes of him whom we still 
delight to call the father of his country — 

"Deed.s not words.'' 

"For God and my Country.'" 

2. In this great epoch in our national history. Christians above 
all others should remember that God is in the history of nations, that 
His rule among the peoples of the earth is for a specific purpose, viz, 
for the advancement of His glory, for the extension of the Messiah's 
Kingdom. And now in the day of restoration, if our minds are sim- 
ply occupied in thinking of ourselves, as a great nation, on a proud 
and defying eminence as regards the other nations of the earth, we 
sadly err and have lost sight of the great historical lesson of the 
day. I will yield to no man in hearty gratulations at the restora- 
tion of our national ensign over the whole length and breadth of our 
land. There is, however, another emblem, we must place above our 
Country's flag, that is the emblem of Messiah's Kingdom, the Cross. 
Because we love our country much it is no reason that we should not 
love the cross more. As Christians we are to look upon our restored 
land as a vaste amphitheatre which we are called upon to enter, 
and with all the wisdom and power that God has given us contend 
earnestly for religious truth. The Lord's hand in our struggle was 
not simply to save the United States Government as an end, but to 
preserve it, to make use of it for the advancement of his spiritual 
kingdom, simply a means to an end. The Lord over all elevates us 
to the dignity and honor of being co-workers with Him, and calls 
upon us, nay commands us to make use of our increased privileges 
and opportunities with an eye single to this end. Let us then my 
hearers with increased faith and large expectations commence our 



u 

renewed service " by paying oar vows unto the Most High." 
(a). Our da^'S of war, were days of profuse libcraliti/. To look 
upon the vast collection of stores that came from the intelligent, 
moral and christian people of our land, and wep4r dispensed to the 
needy by the Christian and Sanitary Commissions, we had a magni- 
ficent testimonial of our nations beneficence. Has the demand for 
liberality ceased with the close of our struggle? Are there no maimed 
patriots, no widows, no orphans in the land ? Are the desert wastes 
of the South, the poor of the South, and the freedmen who plead for 
charity to be looked upon with cold indiHerence ? Are we not to 
commence again missionary work on our borders i and must not the 
hardy sons of the north who by thousands are seeking homes in the 
South be followed by the means of grace ? Must not the leaven of 
the Gospel be at work upon the great multitudes who come from 
foreign lands to seek homes in our disenthralled country '{ Are we 
in the days of our manly prowess and triumph, as a nation, to go 
back as a Church, in losing sight of the vast foreign field that is yet 
to be subdued to the Lord i The imperative demands that come 
from these different fields, show that there must be no relaxation in 
liberality. We have, in many ways, vowed to the Lord that we 
would, when He should remove the dark war-cloud from us, be more 
faithful to His cause. His displeasure will be upon us if we pay not 
these vows. 

(b). During the war we were liberal in me?i. How many house- 
holds gave their pride, their stay, their hope. Alas how many there 
are who return not again to enjoy these days of sweet peace for 
which they struggled. But the battle of the Lord still goes on, there 
is no discharge in this warfare. Why, professing christians do 
you stand so listless, so inactive when the conflict between light and 
darkness still rages ? Why let your armor rust when it should be 
burnished by being wielded in the actual conflict i Remember this 
day your vows to the Most High. Christian parents, you have ob- 
served how, from time to time, the leaders of the Lord's hosts fall in 
the conflict, and there are vacancies, and the soldiers of the cross be- 
come disheartened and scattered because they have no one to marshal 
them and lead them on ; have you no son to give to the great captain 
of the host to serve Him in His ministry, who may go forth with the 
high honor of having a commission from Heaven, to do valiant service 
in the battles of the Lord ? You have in solemn vows dedicated your 
offspring to the Lord in infancy, and promised to train them up ia 
His nurture and fear. Pay your vows unto the Lord this day by re- 
commencing duties that have been neglected in training up those 
whom the Lord has given you, and if the Lord sees fit to confer 
upon any of them the high honor of commissioning them for the 
public ministry, rejoice in the fact that the Lord has separated them 
from the world for this glorious work. 

(cj. In our days of blood we were liberal in our prayers. How 



15 

many prayers ascended from households all over this land, lor the 
protection of those whom we loved ; how many prayers were daily 
ofiered for the salvation of the great number who were dying in 
hospitals, and falling upon the battle field ; vvith what importunity 
did we besiege the throne of grace, praying that our land might be 
delivered from schism and war. Should we be more sparing now in 
our supplications ? Have we paid our vows to the Lord in wrestling 
for His spiritual blessing upon ourselves, upon our families, our 
church, our country, the world ? 

(d). We thank the Lord to day for a national iiniti/. The fiery 
furnace of war through which we have passed, and the heavy and 
repeated blows that have been given, have welded our separate States 
together in more indissoluble bonds than united them before. "While 
we rejoice in this, have we no aspirations for the unity of the body of 
Christ? The day promised shall come, when there will be one Lord,one 
faith, one baptism. God the Father has the time in store when the 
prayer of the eternal Son shall be answered. His supplication to the 
Father was, that all His followers might be bound together in the 
spirit of unity : "That they all may be one ; as Thou Father art in 
Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us," (John xvii 21.) 
This universal Christian Republic, embracing all the nations of the 
earth under the ample folds of its beneficent reign, should be the 
burden of the Christian's prayers, the object of his labors. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 787 330 



1 



